Griqua people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (Unknown c. 2 to 5 million) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| South Africa, Namibia | |
| Languages | |
| Afrikaans, English, Korana | |
| Religion | |
| The Griqua Church (Protestantism) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Coloureds, Khoikhoi, Basters, Oorlam, Afrikaners |
The Griqua (/ˈɡriːkwə/; Afrikaans Griekwa, sometimes incorrectly called Korana or Koranna) are a subgroup of South Africa's heterogeneous and multiracial Coloured people, who have a unique origin in the early history of the Cape Colony.
Similar to another Afrikaans-speaking group at the time, the Trekboers, they originally populated the frontiers of the infant Cape Colony. Their semi-nomadic society mobilised into commandos of mounted gunmen. Also like the Boers, they migrated inland from Cape Town, and established several states in what is now modern South Africa and Namibia.
Under apartheid they were classified as "Coloured" and have since mostly integrated with other mixed-race populations in South Africa.
The Griqua are a racially and culturally mixed people who descended from the intermarriages and sexual relations (sometimes rape) between European colonists in the Cape and the Khoikhoi living there in the 17th and 18th centuries. The mothers were generally Khoikhoi and, as time went on, mixed-race. The fathers were European colonists. Over time the mixed-race people married among themselves.
The mixed-race groups that developed in the early Cape Colony had different names for themselves. "Bastaards", "Basters", "Korana", "Oorlam" and "Griqua" were a few of them, with each group often having a preference. Like the Afrikaners, these groups frequently migrated inland to escape colonial rule.
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Wikipedia